Heat forward LeBron James shrugs off a call during Game 6 of the NBA Finals vs. the Spurs. Miami won 103-100 in overtime. / Derick E. Hingle, USA TODAY Sports

by Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY Sports

by Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY Sports

MIAMI - LeBron James went from goat to hero to goat to hero in the span of 50 exhilarating and exhausting minutes against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday.

It was a microcosm of James' NBA Finals performance against the San Antonio Spurs: great one game, not great enough the next.

It was difficult to tell which way it would go for James in Game 6.

After a rugged first three quarters, James produced when Miami needed it most, with its season slipping away into disappointment. He scored 16 of his game-high 32 points in the fourth quarter as the Miami Heat outlasted the San Antonio Spurs 103-100 in a back-and-forth overtime affair, forcing a winner-take-all Game 7 in Miami on Thursday (9 p.m. ET, ABC).

"It was by far the best game I've ever been a part of," James said of Game 6. "The ups and downs, the roller coaster, the emotions, good and bad throughout the whole game. To be a part of something like this is something you would never be able to recreate once you're done playing the game. And I'm blessed to be a part of something like this.

"And I'm happy about the way we dug down and was able to get a win. It didn't look like we could muster up at some point in the game."

James also had 11 assists and 10 rebounds for his second-triple double of the series, his fourth Finals triple-double and his 11th postseason triple-double.

His three-pointer with 20.1 seconds left cut San Antonio's lead to 94-92, and after Kawhi Leonard made 1 of 2 free throws, Heat guard Ray Allen made a three with 5.2 seconds left to force overtime.

James' 7-foot floater in the lane with 1:43 left in overtime proved to be the winning shot.

"Everything we do starts with him," Allen said. "If he has great energy, if he has bad energy, we feel it, the rest of the team. So one thing I always try to make sure I do with him is to make sure he understands how his aura, his energy has an effect on the rest of the team. And we always need it to be great energy.

"He has a great motor out on the floor, the way he starts games, the way he closes out quarters, defensively the way he plays. With that we follow suit. So it's a terrible burden, but for one guy, he has to make sure that he always keeps the energy and that positivity flowing in the right direction, because we do all follow suit."

For much of the game, James seemed on his way to one of those empty triple-doubles, which look nice in the box score but yield a loss. He posted one in Game 1, when the Spurs won another thriller.

James made three of 12 shots through three quarters. Miami trailed 75-65 at the start of the fourth quarter.

"I was struggling shooting the ball," James said. "We were struggling. And they took a commanding 12-point lead to start the fourth. After we came out before we entered the ball, I basically just told myself, give it all I got. If we go down losing, I'm going to go down with no bullets. I'm going all out. I can be satisfied with the results.

"That's exactly what I did. I just tried to play both sides of the floor on a high, intense level until I had no more left in the tank."

During a 20-7 run in which the Heat took an 85-82 lead, James scored 11 points. Oddly, James played much of the fourth quarter and all of overtime without his trademark headband. It fell off as James dunked a Mario Chalmers missed shot with 9:00 left in the fourth quarter.

"I don't even remember the play much," James said. "I was just focused on the job, the task at hand, and just trying to be aggressive, just trying to figure out ways I could help the team get back into the game. And you know, I guess the headband was the least of my worries at that point.

Heat guard Dwyane Wade said, "I've never seen him play without his headband that long, since his rookie year."

As great as James played in the fourth, he also had a turnover with 39.9 seconds left in regulation. San Antonio's Manu Ginobili made three free throws on the next two possessions, putting the Spurs up 93-89 with 28.2 seconds to go.

Goat.

James' three-pointer started the wild comeback.

Hero.

"An absolute desperation and will," Spoelstra said of James. "To do it on both ends, obviously he had an extremely tough cover with (Spurs guard Tony) Parker, making every play for us, really aggressive, able to get into the paint. But just gave us that life when we were down by 10."

For a while, it looked like James wouldn't match his stellar production in elimination games. He entered the game averaging 31.5 points, 10 rebounds and 6.4 assists in 11 games with his season on the line in the playoffs.

He matched it and then some. In posting his third triple-double in an elimination game, James joined Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Wes Unseld, Jerry West and Bill Russell as the only players to record a triple-double in a Finals elimination game.

James was spent after playing 50 of 53 minutes, including all 29 minutes in the second half and overtime. He let out an old-man groan as he got up from his post-game news conference.

"Fatigue is a part of the game," James said. "You've got two teams fighting for an NBA championship. Not only are they going all the way taking the tank all the way down to E, they're also using their reserve tank.

"But I don't think fatigue played a part in the game. I think both teams had a will to win. We just made one more play at the end of the day."

Now, one more elimination game for James and the Heat.

"It's the last game of the season," James said. "You have to muster up all the energy that you might have. It's not about X's and O's at this point. They know what we're running. We know what they're running. We know their personnel. They know our personnel. It's about getting stops defensively, staying in it mentally, not turning the ball over, and making a few shots.